Starting over
by casey.robinson.520
Summary: Karen arrives at Waterloo Road with a purpose of her own but what exactly is that purpose?


First day of a new school year.

Chris and Brooke made their way into Karen office.

"Hi Karen this is Brooke, one of our deputy heads who you didn't get the chance to meet at the end of last term" Chris couldn't take his eyes of Brooke.

"Oh hello. It's nice to meet you finally" the two women shook hands.

"Hi sorry miner inconvenience of having a baby kept me from meeting you" they all laughed

"How is he?" Karen asked, before Brooke could say anything Chris replied with "he's amazing, He's 7 weeks old now" Chris beamed with happiness.

"And you're ok with being back at work, are you Brooke" Karen said whilst Chris showed her a picture of their beautiful baby boy.

"Yeah, I'm only doing Wednesday, Thursday and Friday but I thought I'd come into today to help get everyone settled, Chris not everyone wants to see a picture of Oscar, sorry" Brooke slapped Chris's arm

"No it's fine, he's adorable, you must bring him in soon" Karen got up from behind the desk and watched as pupils started to arrive.

"Right we'd better go down, we'll have a year 7 assembly first and get that out the way" all three of them made their way down to greet the pupils.

"Alright miss Standen, what are you doing here?" Sambuca Kelly said as she made her way into the school.

"Hi Sam, I still work here you know, how was your holiday?" Brooke greeted Sam with a smile.

"Same old, wow miss you look amazing. Have you got any pictures of the baby!?" Sam inquired.

"I'm sure Mr Mead will show you them, as soon as you've handed in your homework that I set you just before I left"

"Aw miss, you see the thing is..." Sam tried her hardest to come up with her best excuse before being interrupted by Brooke

"Our lessons not until Friday so you've got plenty of time now off to form Sam" Brooke watched as Sambuca caught up with the rest of her friends.

"Brooke I wasn't expecting to see you back so soon" the lady greeted her.

"I just can't keep away, Mrs Fisher this is Vanessa Jacobs, the social worker we mainly deal with" "don't I know you from somewhere?" Vanessa was sure she'd worked with Karen before

"No I don't think so. I must just have one of those faces" Karen laughed nervously.

Vanessa and Brooke made their way outside to see the new pupils that were joining the school who were also in care.

"They seem to know each other well" Karen said to Chris.

"Oh yeah, Brooke was one of Vanessa's first cases , she was in and out of care and now we have Vanessa as our one to one social worker so that kids coming from the care system feel a bit easier about coming to school" Chris was proud of how far Brooke had come as most of the kids he'd seen from care hadn't made much out of themselves.

"That sounds like a great thing to have, so are you sure she's ok with coming back to work so early?" Karen inquired.

"It was her idea, I'm doing Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday so we're splitting the childcare. To be honest with you, she loves it here she gets on so well with the kids and the staff. If there's ever a problem then you don't need to worry we'll both be here to help and support no matter what day it is" Chris reassured Karen that both were committed to the job.

Having greeted the new students and the gates just about to close the three of them made their way into the assembly room and Karen began.

"How was that? I was thinking we could go round the school just pop our faces in especially to the newbies" Karen was so nervous about her first day but it was all coming together.

"Brilliant, sorry one second" Chris's phone rang as they started to head for Karen's office.

"That sounds like a good idea, i'll be able to point out those you'll probably be getting to know very well over this year" Brooke smiled at Karen as Chris caught up with them.

"Everything ok Chris?" Karen questioned him and Brooke look concerned.

"It was just my mum, she's looking after Oscar she's bringing him at lunch time as she's got a hair appointment" Chris rolled his eyes.

"What are we meant to do now, I thought she wanted to look after him or I'd of booked him into the crèche" Brooke sighed.

"I'll have a word with Sarah see if she can have him for this afternoon, if not then you'll have to have him because I've got a class, talking of which I need to check that the science prep room has prepared everything that we need for later " Chris gave Brooke a kiss on the cheek and made his way to his classrooom

"He doesn't normally do that, i think he was hoping I'd take the full year off but I'm not really one for sitting at home, anyway shall we start the rounds then" Brooke smiled at Karen.

"Don't worry about Oscar, we'll sort something between us" Karen said as they made their way to the first class of year 7s.


End file.
